Computers include various components, such as a central processing unit (CPU), memory, mass storage, and other components. As speed requirements increase and as software applications place ever increasing demands on a computer's hardware resources, such as the CPU and memory, a user may find it desirable to upgrade certain components, such as the storage capacity and operating speed of the memory.
In many computers, adding memory modules to a computer typically involves first shutting down the computer before the memory modules are added. For certain applications, such as those involving servers on a network, shutting down the computer to add memory capacity causes the computer to become unavailable, which may be undesirable. To address this, hot plugging techniques have been implemented to enable new memory modules to be added to a computer while the computer remains live (that is, while the system is operating and remains available). Hot plugging memory modules present several challenges. For example, certain operating systems within a computer, such as WINDOWS® operating systems from Microsoft Corporation, are unable to properly handle the hot upgrade of a memory module which involves the removal of an existing memory module and the replacement of the memory module with a new memory module that has a larger storage capacity. Without the ability to handle hot upgrades of memory modules within a computer, flexibility is reduced.